No buzz

[Linda]

Miss hearing from everyone. With the warm weather this week, what are beeks doing with their hives? Anything ? I checked the sugar bricks on hives. All seems to be doing well. Saw a bit of pollen coming in. Does anyone do inspection this time of year with the warm weather? I did OA treatment couple weeks ago. How many have been attending monthly meeting?

[Jacobs]

I did OAV at the house about 10 days ago. I plan on going to my bees in Brown Summit this afternoon so that I can complete OAV there between dusk and dark. It is far too warm with too many foragers flying to attempt OAV mid-day. My bees have been running through sugar bricks at a brisk pace, so I plan to keep a close eye on the food situation. I am tipping/hefting hives from the front and back to feel for light hives that need emergency stores. So far, so good. Bees at the house are definitely finding pollen. I see camellias in bloom on neighborhood walks and know other things must be blooming as well. Leatherleaf mahonia and flowering quince are still in the bud stage. I've been avoiding the temptation of doing hive inspections unless I run into something that really needs attention.

I've been attending monthly meetings. Numbers are definitely down--25-35 folks at a meeting. Some mask up--some don't. For now, the Cooperative Extension is not mandating masks.

We have some new officers for 2022. Stoney Berry was elected president, Lesa Pierce-treasurer, and Roy Lowe-secretary. James Brown will move to the board as immediate past president, replacing me. How James managed 8 years as president (and many years before that as VP), I'll never know. We really owe him a debt of gratitude.

We are looking forward to our in person beginner beekeeping course in January. We still have space, so if you know someone who is interested, have them send in the registration before January 1st OR have form and funds ready to register as a walk-in when we begin on January 12th if they can't mail the form by January 1st. IF we have space issues, the pre-registered folks will be admitted first, then first come-first served walk-ins.

That's what has been going on with me, and some with the GCBA. I agree with Linda-it has been too quiet. Let us hear from you!

[Wally]

So who is VP?

[Jacobs]

Vern is still VP.

[EduCat5]

Thanks for sharing, Rob. It helps to know what others are seeing/doing. I agree, James should be commended for such a long run doing what is often a thankless job as president for so many years.

I'm looking forward to in person meetings in 2022... hopefully.

[Jacobs]

Yesterday I went to my remote hives to add sugar bricks in the shims. Most bricks had been completely consumed in a little less than a month. One hive at the Arboretum had a real surprise--bees had built a small amount of burr comb in the shim and some cells contained nectar. This hive is very strong for this time of year. I am not completely surprised because the bees came from a swarm I collected on February 27, 2020.

[reedyfork]

Just got back from vacation and decided to check on my sugar brick situation after reading Jacobs' post... Three of the four hives at my house have consumed the entire brick within a month, and have completely filled the feeding shim with new COMB, EGGS, LARVAE, and HONEY! I have no idea what to do about this and would welcome any advice:

These are very strong colonies wintering in three mediums.
I stopped feeding syrup on Nov. 10.
I added shim and sugar brick on Dec. 4.
Although they were very heavy going into winter, I now have no way to feed for the rest of the winter using the shim.
I did not open boxes or look at frames, but immediately closed the lid once I saw what was going on. Have no idea what my next move should be.

If they are using resources to build comb and raise lots of brood now, how in the world can I keep them from starving over the next few months if it actually turns cold???

(I will post pics if I can figure out how to make them small enough)

[reedyfork]

Hopefully these photos work...

[Jacobs]

I would give serious thought to bumping the bees out of the comb and cleaning out the shims. I've never had your issue--it has been so warm with some nectar available for so long. Your bees are doing what strong hives do in late winter/early spring. If it were that time of year, I would be cleaning up the burr comb/drone brood to get the shims off and possibly put a honey super on. This early in winter, I THINK I would sacrifice the drone brood now to make sure I had bricks/feed on for these strong hives. I really would like to hear what other folks think.

[reedyfork]

I just spoke to another beekeeper in the exact same situation with 6 of his 9 hives. My plan right now is to wait till the next warmish day and scrape and remove all the burr comb. I'm going to check and assume the lower medium box is empty, remove it, and put it on top. I'm going to trade out half the frames in that box with empty foundation, then put the shim back on with 2 sugar bricks to help fill the empty space in the shim.

If it stays warm and they still want to draw comb, then hopefully they'll do it on the new foundations. If they run short on honey, they will then have emergency food in the form of sugar bricks.

My only fear is that it turns really cold and they can't access the sugar, and they wouldn't have stored honey in the top box as the cluster moves up...

I'd still love more advice and to hear from others, as I'm sure this might be a common situation for many folks right now!

[Susie]

I've seen this, too. From the folks I've talked to, I think it's happening across the state.

[Susie]

I just wanted to add that my husband went to Beez Needz to get some sugar bricks for these voracious buzzers. The lady that checked him out said that she'd done and OA vapor treatment at solstice and six of her nine hives had greatly expanded in the meantime. Maybe it just knocked the mites down enough to make such a big difference.